I went to a writer's group last night for the first time. Feeling brave, I gave my card with my website to several strangers and one acquaintance. That's kind of a big deal for me, because I constantly get this feeling that I'm wasting my time, who's going to care what I have to say. And so far only my sister is reading my website.

But when I read editorials in newspapers, I think, "I could do that!" Creating a website was a great accomplishment, getting readers will be even greater. I don't know if there are statistics for people reading websites, like if you hand out 10 business cards, only one person will actually look at the website, but just handing out the cards gave me a confidence boost. It was my action, not theirs that gave me the boost.

I was explaining to these people what this site is about and they said, "Oh, like Erma Bombeck?" Well, yes, I aspire to Erma Bombeck, she's my hero and I've loved her since I was a kid.

Now Erma Bombeck was a pioneer in her day. It was unusual for women to be journalists much less humor columnists, but she persevered through everyone's doubts about what she could or couldn't accomplish. She didn't let negativity or criticism stop her from doing what she wanted to do. I was thinking about what she would do in this day and age. She would probably have a website, she would probably be handing out business cards to people in grocery store lines, she'd be knocking on doors of newspapers getting face time with editors.

So many of us have heard the saying "What would Jesus do?" with the acronym WWJD, so my new acronym and motto is WWED, "What would Erma do?" I may even start a revolution and hand out rubber bracelets like Lance Armstrong did with his "Live Strong" bracelets. Mine will say "WWED -livingwithgleigh.com." It's genius I tell ya!

Sherpa

9/23/2010 03:03:31 am

Love it! I think you should also put the website on the back of your car. I always visit websites I see on cars. I write them down when I'm sitting in traffic and then look at them when I get home.

Another suggestion is to send out an email burst to everyone. What the heck! It would be good spam for once....